Wadsworth house, Portland, ca. 1868

Description

Samuel Bartlett Wadsworth, a son of Peleg Wadsworth, wrote beneath this image, "The House in which I was Born, Sept. 18, 1791. Erected by my father in 1785, the first brick house built in Portland. Eastport, Sept 1st, 1868 S B Wadsworth."

The image of the house, on what is now Congress Street, shows elm trees framing the main entrance and a wooden fence screening the working portion of the yard -- and shows the house after it had been modified by the Longfellows.

Samuel Wadsworth moved to Eastport in 1818 and opened a ship's chandlery.

Another of Peleg Wadsworth's children, Zilpah, married Samuel Longfellow, a lawyer. The house, operated by the Maine Historical Society as a house museum, is known as the Wadsworth-Longfellow House.